The key difference between how one approaches the natural sciences and the humanities:
It is not enough for a student of philosophy to know that Plato held one view of justice and John Stuart Mill another. He must consider which, if either, to endorse himself. He must enter the conversation, join the debate, and take sides in it. He cannot put brackets around questions of value in order to preserve his objective detachment. The natural and social sciences require such detachment. Philosophy, literature, art, and the other humanities forbid it. They study the world of human values, but not from without. They study it from within and compel those who follow their path to decide where they stand in this world and why. As a result, the study of the humanities has an unavoidably personal dimension. It forces an engagement with intimate questions of meaning and touches on matters of identity and ultimate concern. Unlike the natural and social sciences, which lead away from the question of what living is for, the humanities lead irresistibly to it.
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